What can you really learn from a political memoir? Are they filled with honest introspection or just self-congratulatory drivel? To help us answer these questions, we called up Craig Ruff, Senior Policy Analyst with Public Sector Consultants.

Ruff explains that politicians have a number of reasons for putting their experiences into print.

“Sometimes,” he says, “it is just about money. They are looking for royalties.” In other cases a memoir contributes to the historical record by offering insight into political decision-making.

“They are looking to set the record straight… They convey the lessons that they learned while in office, and hope that others would learn from those lessons,” says Ruff.

Governor Granholm published A Governor’s Story just months after leaving office, allowing little time for historical reflection. However, Ruff says, “It is fresh, and the recollections are fresh,” which may be a reason why the book was published so soon.

Ruff gives another reason for the timing, “That is: to ward off any other complaints about your service in public life.”

But if a memoir serves to justify and absolve, what is there to learn beyond the political message? These accounts offer anecdotes, insider stories, and a spectator’s seat at closed meetings and private conversations.

Craig Ruff explains that “Others, however, will take from these books some measure of the real personality” of a politician.

“We examine through the eyes of the political leader what motivated him or her to do certain things,” says Ruff, a perspective no analyst or pundit can claim.

When I first heard that former Governor Jennifer Granholm was writing a book focused on her time in office, I was puzzled.

John Engler, a political powerhouse who substantially remade Michigan, wrote no such book. Neither did Jim Blanchard or Soapy Williams or Bill Milliken. They all had governorships far more successful than Granholm’s, in large part for economic reasons beyond her control. Nor, according to the polls, are Michiganders still enraptured with their first female governor’s every word.

So why would she write this book? I was set straight by a longtime titan of the state Democratic Party. “Jacky boy, this book isn’t going to sell in Michigan. It isn’t written for us. This book was written to solidify her reputation with the New York and Washington media, so she can keep her MSNBC commenting job.” And, he added, to present her version of history to the world.

Well, I always was a trifle naïve. So I decided to read the book, called “A Governor’s Story,” and subtitled “The Fight for Jobs and America’s Economic Future.” Somewhat bizarrely, it lists her husband, the erstwhile “first gentleman” as co-author, though it is written entirely in the first person. Early on, it becomes clear that a more accurate title might have been “Alone,” or more simply, “Me.”